The Best Kind
by Sparrow-sama
Summary: Our favourite group of misfits, especially Inuyasha, are unable to handle the possibility that Kagome may leave their world forever.This is a story about the Best Kind of Love with all of its oximoron imperfections.


In the time of Feudal Japan, when youkai's were common among the growing mass of humans, the world was just coming around to an era that would define the creatures who would rule the world in the future. Although the human population was continuously growing, even in those times it could be quite frightening to come across a youkai.

In the middle of the Mushin region, a place which was known for attracting ferocious beasts by means of a sacred legend, it was not uncommon to see one youkai in particular more dangerous than the rest. He was feral, known for his strength, speed and skills with weaponry as well as his determination. It was not unusual to see said youkai prowling around a small village in that region, staying high in the treetops with an amazingly beneficial view of the people (not to mention a small wooden well in the middle of the giant forest surrounding the village as well). It was also not unusual to see this demon often chasing a certain young girl, screaming at her to stop. What was unusual was to see that girl screaming right back.

The youkai (or rather, hanyou) was a protector of sorts over the village. Inuyasha was not as fierce as he looked but was too often seen yelling and screaming at a girl dressed in funny clothing for any passers by to be unconcerned. Kagome often returned to her time to take regular study sessions to make up for the majority of time she spent in Feudal Japan; a fact that was totally lost on her protector who more often then not refused to let her return. After a round of yelling which was normally ended with an "OSUWARI", Kagome would get her way and return in about three days.

This fight was no different except for the fact that during a particular heated round of yelling, a certain monk and demon slayer stepped in to intervene before anyone lost any body parts. With the suggestion of Kagome taking some time to "cool off" with a dip in the river, both parties mumbled what could only be interpreted by youkai with the most acute sense as an apology.

With Kagome at the river, Inuyasha proceeded to broad in his favourite tree, the Goshinboku. At times right after a heated battle with her, he often was left with a deep capacity for thinking of things he usually wouldn't allow himself the pleasure of thinking.

The more he thought about these things, the greater the pain was. With a thought in mind, Inuyasha jumped out of his tree, hesitated, and then sat back down onto the ground. What chance would he ever have? He hardly thought that she would listen to him, when had she ever listened to him? But this was different, this wasn't about battle strategies, or her interference in his personal life, or her safety. This was about how he fell in love with her more than three years ago and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop.

Inuyasha sighed. This was too complicated. His heart and head were battling it out again and he wondered if his heart would ever win, considering the fact that every time his heart tried to get him to fess up, his head was there to beat it to a pulp before he could think about anything.

"So there you are," Miroku said, "I was wondering where you had disappeared to."

"AHH!" Inuyasha jumped, "don't DO that!"

Miroku chuckled then sat down beside his furry friend. He had just come from the village after being chased down by Sango for touching her butt again. He was very tired from his 'little' run and lay back on the tree that Inuyasha had just vacated. Both men were very quiet for a while before Inuyasha got fed up and decided to break the silence.

"Well," he said, "what're you doin' here, Monk?" although he had a pretty good idea of what the answer was.

"I just wanted to check up on you, I have no hidden agenda what-so-ever," Miroku said with an 'innocent' smile. There was a long pause between them before Miroku spoke again. "So, have you seen Kagome-sama lately?"

Inuyasha started to growl. They were not about to have this conversation, not if he could help it.

"None of your business."

"Inuyasha, don't you think you are behaving a little childish?"

Inuyasha growled even louder. This was none of his business. How he felt about Kagome and what he did about it was something he would never share with anyone. After Kikyou, you could hardly blame him for not being open with his feelings. He had spent many years trying to build up a wall protecting his emotions. But his feelings got the better of him sometimes, and he often told little secrets he had kept about himself, even from Kikyou. But that was only with Kagome, he'd be damned if he would share anything with the perverted Monk.

"No, I don't."

The Hanyou sat there stubbornly, with his nose high in the air. Miroku sighed, he would never learn.

"We are all helping Lady Kagome pack for her departure, would you perhaps like to join us?"

The Monk never saw it coming. Miroku was unconscious before he could utter the word 'baka'

As the Hanyou jumped from branch to branch after quickly leaving the Hoshi to be eaten by pack of wolves, he couldn't help but reflect on what all his friends had been telling him since the moment Kagome had even considered going back to the future for good. It hurt to think he might never see her, smell her, touch her ever again. Of course, he had always refrained from ever getting within skin-to-skin contact distance, occasionally a grab of the hand, his fingers accidentally touching her thigh as she rode on his back, a quick snatch of her arm, all these things done in the heat of battle, never on purpose. The few times that he would accidentally touch her hand, her cheek, give a tender hug, those had not been intentional. Inuyasha always tried to keep his distance with Kagome. Her touch gave him a warm, tingly feeling, one he couldn't quite explain.

As Inuyasha touched down to the ground, just beyond the boundaries of the village, he caught a whiff of air and a scent mixed into the wind. Her scent.

He panicked. He just wasn't ready to face her yet. Just as he was about to leap into the nearest tree, Kagome came around from the forest, hair wet and dripping obviously from a quick bath she had had in the near-by stream. She hadn't spotted him yet, and he probably could have gotten a clean get away if not for the sigh he made after catching her freshly clean scent.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome said, turning her head in his direction.

He froze, mid-step, slowly turning towards her with as much grace as he could muster after nearly stumbling over his feet. Her face had a look of confusion on it, clearly having not been expecting him. Her wet hair was plastered to her face and neck, leaving droplets of water in its wake, while her hands were fisted around her yellow backpack which currently held all her bathing supplies. She had her sleeping entire on, the blue "pa-ja-ma-s" with little white puppies in various places on it. She bit her lip then, a sign that always told him she was nervous and with a worried expression on her face, probably wondering why he was taking such a long time to respond. She had never looked more beautiful.

"Eh…Hi Kagome," Inuyasha said slowly, trying to slow his racing heart. He then made the mistake of looking directly into her deep brown eyes.

Her gaze was penetrating, striking right into his heart and leaving scorching heat in its wake. Her eyes held concern for his well being, naturally, since he was acting very strange at the moment, but beyond that, beyond the worry, there was something else…the one emotion Inuyasha refused to see at any given time, in fear of feeling the pain it might cause. Her dark brown eyes were extremely enticing, and as she held her gaze, he couldn't help but think, _how am I going to let her go?_

Kagome sauntered over to him, growing more and more concerned with each step. When she was within touching distance of him (he tried not to think _kissing_ distance at the moment), she slowly reached up with her arm and put the back of her hand to his forehead.

"Are you feeling all right, Inuyasha?"

The moment her hand touched his head, he felt a scorching heat emanate from that spot, rushing downwards towards his face, all the way down to his toes. He immediately blushed and felt tingly all over. He involuntarily closed his eyes and tried to gain back his coherent thoughts and power of speech; he failed miserably. _How can you not Love this girl?_ A voice in his head thought. _That's the problem, _he thought back, _I Love her too much… if she were to…when she leaves, I won't be able to…I have to push her away now if I want a chance of surviving alone…always alone._

Inuyasha jerked away from her hand, permitting himself the luxury of a pained glance in her direction before replacing it with his infamous scowl.

"Nothing," he mumbled, averting his eyes from her beautiful face, "let's go back to the village."

The sting of his tone of voice hurt Kagome more than she wanted to admit, and as she lamely lowered her arm from where his head had been three seconds ago, she allowed herself to decipher his body language; how he was suddenly tense, back straight, hands balled into fists and refusing to look her in the eyes. She knew that scowl, she had seen it before. Still very confused about his sudden behavior, Kagome took a deep breath and put her being-patient-with-Inuyasha smile on.

"Want me to fix you up some Ramen? There's this new flavour they've been advertising at the…"

"I'm not hungry! Start walking before I leave you here to walk back by yourself," Inuyasha interrupted her, taking a step as he said the last sentence, refusing to look at her for fear of seeing the hurt of his words in her eyes. He wanted to kick himself for what he was doing, he could already smell the salt from her tears coming and hated every fiber in his body for doing this to her. But besides the fact that he wanted to keep Kagome at arms length for his own future survival, he was mostly concerned about her safety; Naraku had played him over once with the woman that he loved, he was not about to allow him to do the same thing fifty years later with someone he loved, perhaps, even more than his first Love. He would just have to remain friends with her._ You can just stay friends,_ he thought sadly.

Kagome was stung by his harsh words and attitude. What was going on? Ever since she had brought up her possible involunteery departure after the jewel hunt was over, he had become even more distant than usual; refusing to remain within fifty feet of her when they set up camp for the night and growling at anyone who dared approach him. _He must really hate me,_ she thought with a sharp pain to her chest, _what can I do to make him not hate me?_

Slowly, Kagome followed Inuyasha back towards the village in silence, carefully avoiding eye contact by staring at the ground. Inuyasha allowed himself a brief glance in her direction, and his heart stopped. Silent tears were slowly streaming down Kagome's sweet face, her attempt at trying to wipe them away was not unnoticed by him. He had never felt so low in his life and wanted so badly to try and rectify the damage he was causing on their friendship. But then he thought about every time they had gotten into a fight and how Kagome was always the one to apologize for whatever mistake he had caused first. She always came back to him. He deserved neither her forgiveness nor her kindness yet he received it non-the less. She deserved much more then the attitude he gave her and by allowing her to always apologize first, he always gave the impression that there was always a chance for them. He knew that was never going to be the case, so he did the one thing he knew would cause her enough pain that she would never come back. He degraded her.

"What's the matter with you? Tears are a sign of the weak. If you're going to cry about every little thing, why don't you go back to your time and stay there?"

Kagome inwardly cringed at his words. Although some part of her knew he didn't mean this, she was too hurt and confused to allow that logic to stick in her mind so she did the one thing she always did when she got hurt by him; she hurt him back.

"Look Inuyasha, we can't all be as cold-hearted as you, ok? So just lay off and leave me alone!" and with that, she took running off toward the village. She stumbled over a tree root sticking up from the ground, but she just got right back up and ran even faster.


End file.
